Chickpea Avocado Salad

This chickpea avocado salad is super easy to make and great for a weekday lunch, side dish or to take to a potluck, picnic or BBQ. You can choose to serve this salad as-is with a squeeze of lemon juice, or whip up a creamy vegan dressing to drizzle over top. Either way it’s a hearty, protein-packed and delicious salad that will keep you full for hours!

On days that I don’t feel too much like cooking I generally end up throwing together some kind of a grain-based salad with whatever leftover vegetables I have in the fridge. My salads invariably include chickpeas because they are soooo good and soooo filling!

Nutty chickpeas and creamy avocado are a match made in heaven but since avocados are quite expensive, I’ve only used one and bulked up this simple chickpea avocado salad with a bit of quinoa, fresh tomatoes, cilantro and red onion.

To add even more flavour and creaminess to the salad I took a portion of the chickpeas and blended them up with a touch of tahini and seasonings for a simple hummus-like dressing to pour over top of mix in.

What’s great about this chickpea avocado salad is how versatile it is. You can roll it into a wrap or pile it onto a tortilla for a quick and fresh taco. Serve yourself a big plate of it with some toast on the side for a hearty lunch or take it along to a picnic to share with your friends. This is a great make-ahead salad that will keep well in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

We all know that the key to saving money is to plan ahead. Cooking your chickpeas from dry is a big money saver, but you have to think ahead to do it or have a big freezer where you can store them for later!

I have a tiny European freezer that’s already stuffed to the brim and I’ve never been really good at planning ahead, but since there’s a much larger variety of dried beans available (to me anyway), I’ve gotten much better at thinking about tomorrow’s dinner and putting some beans on to soak overnight.

Of course if you didn’t have the foresight to soak your beans overnight you can also make this chickpea avocado salad with canned chickpeas – a bit more expensive than dried but still a cheap ingredient.

Instructions

1

Rinse the quinoa under running water then cook it according to the package directions.

2

Meanwhile, take 1/3 of a cup (55 grams) of the chickpeas and combine them in a food processor or blender with the water, lemon juice, tahini, Dijon, salt and pepper. Blend to a creamy consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

3

Toss together the remaining chickpeas, quinoa, red onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and avocado. Serve the dressing on the side to mix it into the salad.

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